Empowering Education and Advancing Research: Exploring the Benefits, Opportunities, and Challenges of Tech Trends Using AI Tools

The study is aimed at analyzing the perceptions of the use of AI tools in education and research among university teachers and assesses the influence of awareness, benefits, opportunities, and challenges of AI tools for education and research. Mixed design with qualitative and quantitative approaches was used in the study. The data was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire from a sample of 177 teachers and was analyzed using the logistic regression analysis technique. The study revealed that Awareness and challenges were the two factors that have a significant influence on the usage of advanced tools in the education sector, whereas benefits and opportunities are insignificant. The reason for these results may be that the teachers may be aware of the use of these tools and their challenges. Due to their nascent stage, the benefits and opportunities of AI tools have still not come into the limelight. Awareness positively impacts its usage whereas Challenges have a negative influence. Many experts and educational institutions view AI tools are the bane to education and research but the outcome of this research will become evidence and guidance to academicians, researchers, regulators, and educational institutions to promote these technologies in a more advanced way by taking into consideration of various ethical aspects. AI tools are a matter of debate today in all the fields of life and education is not an exception. To transform education and research to a remarkable point it is necessary to promote AI tools. This study may help educational institutions and regulators to frame a policy with monitored restrictions on the usage of these technologies in education and research to promote their implementation in an ethical and integrity manner.